KBS undergraduate summer researcher Rebekah Sanchez is a horticulture major at the University of Puerto Rico. She wrote about her Research Experience for Undergraduates project working with mentor Kate Glanville, an LTER and GLBRC graduate student in Phil Robertson's lab. Rebekah was funded by an REU site award to the Kellogg Biological Station and by an ESA SEEDS Fellowship.
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One of the cool things about going to new places or engaging in different experiences is that they rarely turn out how you imagined. Sometimes an experience exceeds your expectations and other times you

KBS undergraduate summer researcher Bibiana Rodriguez is a Biology major at California State Univ. - Sacramento. She wrote about her Research Experience for Undergraduates project working with Dr. Karen Stahlheber in Dr. Katherine Gross’ lab. Bibi was funded by an NSF REU site award to the Kellogg Biological Station.
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This summer, I spent 11 weeks at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) as part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Eleven weeks was all the time I had to:
Work on my summer research project.
Learn new techniques.
Collect and analyze

KBS undergraduate summer researcher Parker Anderson is a pre-medical student at Michigan State University. He wrote about his Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship (URA) experience working with Kate Glanville, an LTER & GLBRC graduate student in Phil Robertson’s lab. Parker was funded by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
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As a pre-medical student at Michigan State University, I was nothing less than bewildered and intimidated as my research mentor, Kate Glanville, drove my colleague and myself through the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site. The sights,

KBS undergraduate summer researcher Aleah Dungee is majoring in Biology at Norfolk State University. She wrote about her Research Experience for Undergraduates experience working with Di Liang, an LTER graduate student in Phil Robertson’s lab. Aleah was funded by an NSF REU site award to the Kellogg Biological Station.
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This summer as a participant in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the Kellogg Biological Station, I researched the relative contributions of ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) to nitrification on different land use

Each year the KBS LTER program awards one full-year Graduate Student Fellowship. Here Leah Harris Palm-Forster describes her research that was supported by the 2014 LTER Graduate Fellowship. Leah obtained her Ph.D. working with Professor Scott Swinton in MSU's Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics and is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Applied Economics and Statistics.
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Going once, going twice, … bought from the lowest bidder! Hold on, what kind of auction is that? Why is the auctioneer buying something and why does the

Each year the KBS LTER program awards two graduate students with summer research fellowships. Here Brendan O'Neill describes the research his summer fellowship supported. Brendan is a Ph.D. student in Tom Schmidt and Phil Robertson's labs.
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My research at the Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) site has focused on how increasing crop diversity (for example, including cover crops) can enhance soil ecosystem functions while sustaining crop production. Examples of soil ecosystem functions include retaining carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) within the field and

In 2013, the United Nations released a report projecting that the global population will reach 9.6 billion by the year 2050. This increase of 2.4 billion people between now and then is already beginning to challenge the world’s agricultural communities to provide adequate food, fuel and fiber while employing sustainable practices that conserve natural resources. The feat becomes more complex when coupled with the increasing demand to grow more bioenergy crops, combat biodiversity declines and regenerate the habitat of agriculturally important insects.
Doug Landis, Michigan State University

During this Thanksgiving week, we want to express our thanks to volunteers Bill Krasean and Joelyn de Lima who offer helpful hands—and many hours—to our KBS LTER community.
Krasean has been volunteering at the KBS LTER for over one year.
“I started out volunteering at the KBS Bird Sanctuary,” said Krasean. “Then I found out the KBS LTER could use someone with experience in photography and writing, so I switched.”
After working for the Kalamazoo Gazette as a reporter for almost 35 years, he retired in 2005. With an interest in scientific nature and natural history, along with a